Scottish parents - Advanced Highers

[tubularfells]

We moved from England and while I think I'm up to speed with the difference between England and Scotland's qualifications, there is one thing I'm still unsure about.

If DD does 5 highers and is offered a place at uni (in Scotland) - when would we know she was in and (if she had got her place) would there be any point her staying on for 6th year and taking advanced highers? She's at an independent and so I'd rather save/give her the money for a gap year than have her take advanced highers if they're not necessary.

Scottish parent here. My Dd is now at Uni, but she did 5 Highers in 5th year and then 3 AHs in 6th. Dd had offers from 4 different Unis based on her 5 Highers and could have left then, but she would have only been 16 and not ready for University. She also wanted to experience 6th year and the roles offered to the Senior Prefects (She was Dep Head Girl).

She turned down all the offers and took a year out after 6th year to study abroad, this meant that she was 18 before she started at Uni.

She orginally signed up to do a joint honours in a European language (she got a B at AH), and a non-european one. She hadn't studied her Euro language for well over a year and when she arrived at her first lecture for it she realised that it was full of English students who had studied it to A-level, and in many cases had just spent the summer in that country. They were beyond learning the language and were already studying the language in literature. My Dd dropped the language after the first day as she felt she was so far behind.

She had a A at Higher in this language, as well as her B at AH a year later. If a student starts a course like that with just Highers, I imagine they would find it very difficult to keep up with the majority of the students who have studied it at A-level and beyond.

It's fairly hard to be a domiciled Scottish student in a Scottish Uni these days, especially the 'big' names like Edinburgh and St Andrews. They set far higher conditions for the Scots and there are very few fully funded places available to them. My Dd had her 5 A grades at Higher and was turned down by St Andrews, although Edinburgh was her top choice and where she is now.

That is really interesting, thank you.

I'm surprised that the requirements were so tough. Although I know the admissions guidelines can be the minimum when I was looking at St Andrews today for English they wanted AAAB at Higher which was what got me thinking along these lines. I'd also read recently that sometimes Scottish unis have students skip the first year and go straight into second year (although I hadn't heard of this personally) which added to my reasoning to skip 6th year.

My DD would be 17.5 at the end of 5th year so a little older than the average and then would be 18.5 if she took a year out or stayed on for 6th year so there's that to add to the mix. I know she would be tempted to go at the same time as her English friends!

It's a little way off so time to think.

I would really advise your DD to do 6th year, both for the experience and the fact that the AHs are a really good preparation for university, especially the RG group ones. AHs are actually scored a grade higher than A levels in UCAS points (My DD's ABB would be equivalent to A*AA at A level). Three good AHs would be a really good set of results to give her lots of choices, especially if she fancied an English Uni or wanted to have a good shot at getting into Edinburgh or St A's.

Just to add...

You might want to find the Scotsnet section on this board and post your question there too. It's an active section with many parents who discuss SQA qualifications and Uni entries.

Chocolate has it right when they state that it is far harder for Scottish students - the cap on numbers means that universities often ask for far more than minimum requirements from Scottish students - an English/International (non EU) student is pretty much guaranteed a place over a Scottish one.

If you can find offer rates they make interesting reading - Edinburgh publishes them and the offer rate for Scottish students for popular courses is as low as 5/7 %.

While some Scottish Unis do offer 2nd year entrance for strong applicants to skip first year, this is typically for those with strong A levels or AHs. While skipping first year makes sense from an economic point of view it doesn't in terms of learning to live away from home and mixing with all those other students that have just left home. My worry is that going straight into second year would mean trying to fit into established friendship groups.

If your DD applies after S4 for entry after S5 then she would likely receive conditional offers, she would then know if she definitely had a place after the exam results some out early August.

Staying on for 6th year is much more common now than it used to be (nearly 100% in our local HS), depending on what your DD wants to study then it can be a very valuable year - languages as mentioned would be one unless your DD can spend a year abroad focussing on language skills. The project work that forms a significant part of the AH syllabus is also brilliant prep for independent study.

6th year is quite often used when students haven't had the 5th year that they has hoped for and can be used to resit or add to the overall number of highers.

Depending on where you live you could perhaps send her to your local High School for 6th year instead of staying in her independent school, I've known some people that have done this.

Thanks for your answer celtiethree, I've just seen it after coming back to this thread to show DH.

It's interesting to hear that some move to a local high school for 6th year as I was also wondering if this was an option. I really like the idea of her doing a gap year to work on and in a language but that obviously depends on her and whether she is interested/good at languages.